Perdue, Jr. started his business career with more than a decade as a management consultant. In 1992 he became a VP at Sara Lee Corporation. During the next decade, he worked with Haggar Clothing, and Reebok. He was unable to correct problems at Pillowtex, which he joined in 2002, leaving after nine months with a large buyout. Perdue next worked for Dollar General, where he did achieve a turnaround, and later for the Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd., whose interests in India included textile mills. Before entering politics, Perdue set up a global trading firm in Atlanta, Georgia.

He married Bonnie Dunn. The couple now lives in the resort town of Sea Island.[9] The couple have two sons, David A. Perdue III and Blake Perdue, and three grandchildren.[6][9] David Perdue, Jr. is the first cousin of former Georgia governor and current United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.[10]

Perdue began his career at Kurt Salmon Associates, an international consulting firm, where he worked for twelve years as a management consultant.[11] His first major corporate job was as senior vice president of Asia operations for Sara Lee Corporation, a position he took in 1992. His time at Sara Lee was followed by a stint at Haggar Clothing, where he became senior vice president of operations in 1994.[12]

In 1998, Perdue joined Reebok as a senior vice president, eventually rising to president and CEO. Perdue is credited with significantly reducing the company's debt and reviving its sneaker line. Perdue negotiated a contract with the National Football League that a former Reebok executive referred to as "revolutionary" for repositioning the company's shoe brand.[2]

In 2002, Perdue left Reebok for Pillowtex, a North Carolina textile company. The company had recently emerged from bankruptcy with a heavy debt load and an underfunded pension liability. Perdue was unable to obtain additional funding from the company's investors and later was unsuccessful in finding a buyer for the company. He left the company in 2003 after nine months on the job and $1.7 million in compensation. Pillowtex closed several months later, leaving 7,650 workers out of work nationwide. With more than 4,000 jobs lost statewide, the closing of Pillowtex resulted in the largest single-day job loss in North Carolina history at the time.[13]

After leaving Pillowtex, Perdue became CEO of Dollar General. Prior to his joining the company, it had recently overstated profits by $100 million and paid $162 million to settle shareholder lawsuits. Perdue overhauled the company's inventory line and logistics network, and updated its marketing strategy. After initially closing hundreds of stores, the company doubled its stock price and opened 2,600 new stores before being sold in 2007 to private equity investors.[2]

From 2007 to 2009, Perdue worked as a senior consultant for Indian chemical and textile conglomerate Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd.[14] In April 2011, Perdue started an Atlanta-based global trading firm[2] with Trey Childress, Heidi Green, and former Georgia governor, Sonny Perdue.[15]

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Perdue is "known on Wall Street as a turnaround specialist who helps revive brands and reap rewards for investors."[2]

Perdue touted his business experience, and particularly his experience at Dollar General, in running for political office as a Republican candidate. According to Perdue: "We added about 2,200 stores, created almost 20,000 jobs and doubled the value of that company in a very short period of time. Not because of me, but because we listened to our customers and employees.” He received the endorsement of the National Federation of Independent Business.[16]

Perdue's political opponents targeted his business career during the campaign, specifically for outsourcing work offshore. Perdue said he was "proud of" finding lower cost labor for some companies. Critics noted that he had contributed to a total of thousands of jobs lost following the final closure of Pillowtex, while Perdue left the company after nine months with a nearly $2 million buyout.[13][16] After being elected, Perdue stated that he wanted to bring the perspective of "a working person" to Washington, D.C.

The race was considered to be competitive. Perdue won the general election, defeating the Democratic nominee Michelle Nunn 52.89% to 45.21%.[17]

Perdue stated that he entered politics out of concern for the rising national debt, which he has labelled as 'crushing', 'unsustainable' and 'a path to disaster'.[18]

He supports policies to achieve energy independence, as well as 'revitalizing' American manufacturing and increasing exports to 'create quality jobs' and for 'long-term economic growth'. Additionally, he supports actions to 'strictly enforce' laws to secure the border; opposes gun control; is a supporter of the State of Israel; opposes Common Core; and supports marriage being defined as between 'one man and one woman'.[19]

Perdue is seen as one of the closest allies of President Trump in the U.S. Senate after the appointment of Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.[27] Sen. Perdue lobbied for the appointment of his relative and business partner, Sonny Perdue, to fill the Secretary of Agriculture post in the new administration.

During the February 2017 working recess, Perdue declined to meet with his constituents in Town Hall meetings that are typically held across the nation. He publicly stated that "Town Halls aren't my style." [28]

Disclaimer

None of the audio/visual content is hosted on this site. All media is embedded from other sites such as GoogleVideo, Wikipedia, YouTube etc. Therefore, this site has no control over the copyright issues of the streaming media.

All issues concerning copyright violations should be aimed at the sites hosting the material. This site does not host any of the streaming media and the owner has not uploaded any of the material to the video hosting servers. Anyone can find the same content on Google Video or YouTube by themselves.

The owner of this site cannot know which documentaries are in public domain, which has been uploaded to e.g. YouTube by the owner and which has been uploaded without permission. The copyright owner must contact the source if he wants his material off the Internet completely.